Our
destination was Mombasa, and the voyage down the coast was calm and uneventful
until a raw-water pump on the main engine blew the seals and flooded the
engine with salt water. And thus it was that we ended up "enjoying"
a much longer than scheduled stay in Mombasa, having [to do] a total rebuild
of the engine concerned.

Although
you will hopefully choose to stay there for other reasons, Mombasa actually
has a great harbor. However, you must hire 24-hour security, as the abject
poverty has forced people to be very brazen in their attempts to steal
anything possible. Mombasa is a very convenient place to go on safari
and a good location for owners to join their vessel for a cruise of the
Indian Ocean islands.

The
weather was so hot that we had to build ourselves a shaded lapa using
thatch and local poles, and a 55-gallon drum cut in half to use as a barbeque
to cook the tiger prawns or Thompson gazelle for dinner. We had some other
interesting experiences, including meeting a U.S. Air Force crew who were
flying aid into Rwanda. We had Thanksgiving dinner with them on the boat,
and they showed us `round their enormous Globemaster III aircraft....

After
continuing on in early 1997 to Zanzibar, Madagascar, and the Seychelles,
QOD went island-hopping in Southeast Asia in the spring and summer.
A short leg of the overall journey, it provided some fantastic experiences:

Our
expectations of the first port of call, the Maldives, were not that high.
We'd done our homework but, in our experience, most travel writers
who visit these exotic areas cater to a different crowd, and their comments
are rarely a good basis for setting a yachting agenda. Yet the Maldives
turned out to offer an altogether different challenge--finding the
right superlatives to do justice to the wonder of these islands.

I'll
have a go, though, for the Maldives are nothing short of magnificent.
There are 1,192 atolls, fringed with coral reefs. The atolls themselves
are covered in palms and the most beautiful white, sandy beaches lapped
by the clearest water you can imagine. No one seeing this scene for the
first time could fail to be taken aback by the splendor of the most idyllic
beach environment in the world.

The
experiences of the first few hours set the tone. We found an atoll near
Male' to anchor in. The water approaching the atoll was so clear
that we felt obliged to put a crew member over the side in a PWC to sound
the entrance. Although it was in fact 14 feet deep, the bottom looked
as if it was only inches below the surface, with the water magnifying
the fish to make it seem as if we were in a shallow pond.

Anchored
off a spectacular beach resort, we spent the weekend snorkeling. The stunning
tropical fish seemed delighted to see us, and the giant clams and spectacular
coral formations were a wonderful distraction. The water was so calm that
after anchoring and looking down on the anchor and chain, we observed
that QOD had barely moved.